Meet Nicole Blevins! Our Featured Employee of the Week!!

Nikki, as known here at Animal Care Clinic, has been on the veterinary nursing team since November 2006. She grew up locally here in Paso Robles. Nikki spent her first couple college years in Massachusetts She is currently an Animal Science major at Cal Poly, after which she hopes to attend vet school. Nikki has a Siberian husky, Kokoyah, and her cat, Buddy. She enjoys taking her dog to the beach, running, music, and whitewater rafting. Nikki is also one of a couple ACC workers who are vegetarian, and has never eaten meat in her life.

Diabetes in Pets

Written by Richard Tao, DVM

Diabetes is a disease most people are familiar with. Whether it is on a personal level affecting a family member or a close acquaintance, there is no denying that it creates a strain on the physical health of our nation. However personal diabetes is in your life, it’s important not to forget that our pets can also suffer from the condition. Many pet owners are unaware that diabetes is found in dogs and cats too! It is a serious disease that deserves a serious detailed discussion with your veterinarian.

Insulin and glucose testing supplies.

Our pets have no way of communicating the presence of a serious disease like diabetes to us. Owners need to be able to recognize early signs of diabetes, because as conventional wisdom teaches us early detection can lead to early cures. The most common signs of diabetes are an increase in water intake, an increase in urination, and weight loss. Subtle signs like cataracts and muscle weakness can occur in the later stages of the disease. You can expect your veterinarian to obtain a blood and urine sample and perform an ultrasound of the abdomen to make a diagnosis of diabetes.

Diabetes mellitus is the result of the body’s inability to absorb and use a form of sugar called glucose. Without the ability to use glucose from the blood stream the cells in the body literally starve and ultimately cause the disease associated with diabetes. Insulin is the hormone produced by the pancreas that allows the cells to utilize glucose. Treating diabetes will inevitably require insulin injections. The very act of poking your own furry companion may seem difficult, yet it is something even the most needle shy person can manage. We will walk you through each and every step of treating a diabetic pet from diagnosis to treatment and management. With proper care even a diabetic animal can live a long life.

Meet Erin Hickey! Our Featured Employee of the Week!!

Erin joined the veterinary nursing team at Animal Care Clinic in November 2006. She originally grew up in Mt. View, CA and is a graduate of Cal Poly. She earned her Registered Veterinary Technician license in June 2008. Erin loves her 3 dogs, Bean, Tannin and Charlie, as well as her cats Grady and Baldwin. She loves to hike with her dogs and also really enjoys gardening, cooking, and caring for her 16 chickens. The employees at ACC also really enjoy Erin’s baking skills!

Socializing and Training Kittens

Written by Jennifer Evans, DVM

Kittens sure are fun!  I have two, twelve week old kittens at home right now and I had forgotten how entertaining they could be!  I had also forgotten how much work they can be!  These two hooligans came to me as orphans at 3 weeks old, and I have put a lot of energy into socializing and raising them to be good feline citizens.  Sometimes people think that kittens are easy to raise and puppies are the hard ones.  While it’s true that puppies do tend to require more socialization and training than kittens, kittens definitely benefit from deliberate training and socialization.  This can help prevent many behavior problems when they are adults. 

One of the most important things to teach a kitten is how to play appropriately with people.  Do not ever use your hands or feet to play with kittens, always use a toy.  It can be cute (if a bit painful) when a tiny kitten is grabbing your hand and doing the ‘bunny kick’ with their hind legs, but it isn’t so cute when a 1 year old, 12 pound, grown cat does the same thing!  Kittens have an abundance of energy and need safe ways to expend it.  Having several 10-20 minute play sessions each day where they chase a laser pointer or other cat toy, will help wear them out and keep them happy.  Providing self-entertaining toys as well will help keep them out of trouble when you are busy elsewhere.  Kittens should be kept in a safe area when left alone; otherwise they can chew on electrical cords, destroy curtains and generally wreak havoc.  A bathroom is a good place that is fairly easy to kitten-proof.  It is not cruel for a kitten to spend the day in the bathroom while the people are at work, as long as the kitten gets plenty of attention and exercise the rest of the time.  Kittens tend to make toys out of everything in the house, especially the more fragile things!  Squirt bottles usually work pretty well to teach them what is acceptable to climb and play with, and what is not.  They also work well to teach them when they are playing too rough or pouncing on walking feet! 

Teaching kittens to accept nail trims by handling their feet and rewarding gradual step-by-step trimming will make life much easier when they are grown.  Handling them and touching them all over in a calming way will also make it easier to handle them when they are adults.  Taking kittens for car rides, and teaching them to enjoy it can help lessen the trauma later in life when they have to travel to the vet or elsewhere.  Just be sure to put them in a carrier or other safely confining method when traveling.  Visiting friends’ houses where they can interact with different people and surroundings can also help create a calm, mellow cat that can handle whatever life dishes out.   While raising a kitten may not be as simple as just feeding and vaccinating them, the extra effort is well worth it when your feline friend is calm and unafraid as an adult!!

Holiday Pet Tips

Written by Richard Tao, DVM

Have you all noticed the chill in the air?  Fall colors and shorter days mean that 2010 is winding down and a new year is around the bend.  These next few months we’ll spend time visiting family, friends and enjoying the tradition of the holiday season.  The October to December blur comes so fast that it’s sometimes easy to lose track of our furry friends.  Let’s take a moment to consider some important points about our pets. 

Daylight Savings Time:  These days it’s hard not to notice the short amount of daylight we actually get to see!  Now that we have just adjusted our clocks to “fall back” the evenings will also get darker much earlier.  Keep this in mind when taking Fluffy out for his or her walk in the evening.  Rush hour starts just before or around dusk.  With those cars hitting the road it might be a good idea to accessorize Fluffy’s collar with a visible reflector or LED light.  If your kitty is allowed outdoors bring them in before sunset. 

Winterize your buddy:  San Luis Obispo is blessed with a temperate climate nearly year round.  Yet when those storms do come it’s important to provide shelter for any pets that live outside.  Those living above the grade know that nights easily dip below freezing.  Older pets or those with arthritis may have a harder time coping with the cold weather.  A warm and supportive bed can often help these critters tremendously. 

Watch the tummy:  We’re in the midst of the trifecta of gastronomic holidays:  Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas/Chanukah.  Let’s keep the Reese’s, butterballs, and latkes above the foraging noses of our dogs and cats.  Of course, Fluffy and Kitty are part of the family but their stomachs may not be prepared for the barrage of Paula Dean that comes with the holidays.  Fatty foods may mean a few extra pounds for us but it can mean gastroenteritis or pancreatitis for our pets. 

Home Alone:  During the holidays we take trips to visit family and friends.  It might mean leaving Fluffy with our fine lodge facility or hiring a house sitter.  For day trips it might even mean leaving Fluffy home alone.  Our pets are our loyal companions.  They love our company as much as we love theirs.  However, you celebrate the holidays why not take a moment to spend some quality time with them.  Include your pets in your family photos.  Give them special toys as gifts.  And most of all, give them a hug, a pat, and a smile.

Radiation Therapy

Written by Marissa Greenberg, DVM

Radiation therapy is used to treat many forms of cancer in humans and our pets.   Radiation may not cure all cancers, but it can also be used to decrease the size of a tumor, to make future removal less invasive.  It has also been shown to reduce the pain associated with bone cancers.

There is a lot of planning that goes into radiation therapy to ensure that the area being radiated can be very focal, thus decreasing the side effects.  Veterinary radiation oncologists do this planning.  The specialist not only decides on the area that will be radiated, they also decide on how often the treatments will be done and what level of radiation the patient will get with each treatment.  Some cancers may require higher doses of radiation over a shorter period of time, or lower doses of radiation over a longer period of time.  A radiation oncologist takes factors like the type and aggressiveness of the tumor, the location, and what treatments have previously been performed into consideration when making these decisions.  The most common side effect to radiation is radiation burn, which is the equivalent to very severe sunburn.

Khy was a dog Dr. Greenberg cared for during treatment.  You can see the shaved area on her back, which is the surgical area where as much of the tumor was removed before radiation.

Radiation therapy in dogs and cats requires them to be anesthetized, since they aren’t very good at holding perfectly still for very long.  Though radiation treatments are very short, it would be too risky to do it with them awake.  Sometimes this means that these patients may need to be anesthetized every day for several weeks in a row.  In these cases, very fast acting anesthesia is used and these animals recover very quickly.  Though the idea of daily anesthesia may sound very scary, I can testify through my experience with these patients, that they handle it quite well.

I  attended Washington State University College of Veterinary Medicine and worked closely with several dogs that were being treated with radiation.  WSU is one of the few facilities in the Pacific Northwest that can do radiation therapy.  Because of this people came from far and wide to seek treatments for their pets.  As a student, I opened my home to several dogs that came to WSU for treatment from Canada.  These dogs needed daily radiation for over three weeks, and their owners were unable to spend that much time away from their jobs and homes.  So, their dogs came to live with me during that time.  Every day I would drop them off at WSU’s Veterinary Medicine Teaching Hospital and they would be anesthetized for their radiation.  I would pick them up when I was done with classes for the day.  I was skeptical myself about how they would handle daily anesthesia, but was pleased to learn that they didn’t seem to care that they had been anesthetized or that they had cancer!  They led completely normal dog lives; hiking and walking with me in the evenings and on weekends, playing with my own dog, swimming, and always loving their meals.  Though their owners missed them while they were away, I enjoyed being their foster home while they received the treatments they needed.

Dr. Greenberg with her own dog, Slink, on the left of the picture and a radiation patient, Cito, on the right of the picture.

If you have a pet with cancer, and need referral to a veterinary radiation oncologist, please let us know. There aren’t any facilities locally, but we can help find a referral center that is right for you.

Meet Ginger Oliver! Our Featured Employee of the Week!!

Virginia joined our Lodge Team in October 2010, but is known as Ginger to all of us at Animal Care Clinic.  Ginger came to San Luis Obispo from Santa Clarita, California and is currently attending school at Cuesta College.  She has applied to several universities in order to attain her Bachelor's degree in Animal Science and subsequently would like to attend veterinary school in New Zealand.  Her end goal is to practice veterinary medicine and  specialize in  exotics, working  primarily with big cats.  Ginger has grown up with dogs, a cat and horses.  She enjoys volunteering with animal rescues, as well as getting active with hiking, rock climbing, wake boarding and snowboarding.  Ginger loves riding horses from riding cross-country to roping!